Want a Crash Course in Lao Cuisine? Head to the Tenderloin

By now, most Bay Area dwellers are well versed in Thai food: pork bathed in rich and tangy coconut milk curry; noodles tangled in peanut-y sauce; fresh, tangy salads made from green mango or papaya. But when it comes to Thailand’s eastern neighbor, Laos, things get a little more mysterious. There simply aren’t that many Lao restaurants in San Francisco, and even fewer serving the kinds of hearty, homey dishes you’d find in the fragrant, winding, cobblestoned streets of Lao cities like Vientiane and Luang Prabang.

But venture into the heart of the Tenderloin, just a few blocks from Union Square, and you might think you’ve been suddenly transported to Laos itself. Here at Tycoon Thai, a restaurant that’s been featured for the past two years in the Michelin Guide to San Francisco, a team of chefs provides a crash course on true Lao cooking with an array of traditional homestyle dishes from their own family recipes, like sirloin steak in house-made tamarind sauce, and Khao Piak, a signature dish of homemade rice flour noodles with tender spare ribs and crispy bits of fried garlic.

Simple, vegetable-forward dishes flavored with fresh, herbaceous flavor set the tone for Lao food, which is similar in nature to the cuisine of Thailand’s northeast region, known as Isaan. Forgoing heavy coconut milk and sweet tropical fruits in favor of bold, bitter ingredients with plenty of snappy texture, like banana flower and raw Thai eggplant, Lao food is internationally renowned for its health properties. At Tycoon Thai, dishes are packed with rare, disease-fighting ingredients bought fresh daily from local Asian produce markets, like kaffir lime leaves, which are good for digestion and boosting the immune system, and Tiliacora triandra leaves, which can reduce the risk of cancer and tumor formation. For true foodies, Tycoon Thai is required eating: a deep dive into a hard-to-find cuisine unlike any other. Read on for the key steps and dishes to kickstart your education.

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Want a Crash Course in Lao Cuisine? Head to the Tenderloin

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1. Skip the decision anxiety and eat family style. In Laos, chowing down is a way of life. Saunter down the palm-lined streets of any major city or any small village and you’ll find colorful plastic tables spilling onto the sidewalks, packed with groups of people eating, laughing and sharing food. At Tycoon Thai, diners are encouraged to do the same. Don’t limit yourself to one dish; instead, come with a group of friends and order everything your heart desires. From steaming bowls of Gang Om Gai, a velvety and aromatic chicken soup packed with healthy mushrooms, Thai eggplant, dill, lemongrass, and long beans, to Kanom Jeen, a traditional fermented rice noodle dish bathed in a brothy curry of chicken (add pork blood if you dare!) and served with crunchy bean sprouts and cabbage, the challenge is simply to fill your table. All the variety; none of the decision anxiety.

2. Meet your new favorite noodle dish: Pad Mee Lao. Though it may look similar to pad thai, this sweet and savory fried-noodle dish comes straight from Laos. Sure, pad thai done right is delicious and comforting, and Tycoon Thai makes a mean bowl. But have you ever tried the Laotian version? Pad Mee Lao is a fried noodle dish that Tycoon serves with fresh veggies for dipping and a special homemade sauce made with caramelized sugar, along with skinny fried rice noodles, bean sprouts, green onion, black bean sauce and the protein of your choice. Try it with papaya salad for a sweet-and-spicy match made in culinary heaven.

3. Try traditional Lao sausage paired with spicy dip. First, let’s get one thing clear: Lao sausage, known as Sai Ua, just might be the most flavorful sausage in existence. Made from fatty ground pork, garlic, onion, lemongrass, chili, kaffir lime leaves and a blend of fresh herbs, it’s cooked up on the streets of Lao in large fragrant spirals, chopped up with scissors, and served with sticky rice and a dollop of spicy Nam Prik Noom. The savory sausage paired with a fiery Thai green chili dip is a match made in heaven, which is why the good folks of Tycoon Thai have paired the two in one perfect dish.

4. Cozy up to a big, steaming bowl of Lao mushroom soup. As winter sets in and the weather grows brisker, there’s nothing more satisfying than a big bowl of hot soup. And Tycoon Thai’s Gang Hed Sam Yang is a must-try. Known colloquially in Laos as the Three Mushroom Musketeers, this dark herbal soup blends three types of mushroom into a silky, aromatic broth of bamboo shoots, red onion, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. It’s delicious and nutritious!

5. Get lucky with Thung Thong. These crispy, dumpling-like rice-paper sacks filled with minced chicken, shrimp, and shiitake mushroom are unlike any other dish you’ve tried. Thung Thong are crispy and crackly on the outside, soft and savory on the inside, with a unique shape that resembles a sack of money—hence their other name, “Money Bags.” A royal family recipe made according to Lao tradition, they’re said to bring good luck to all who eat them…in the form of cold hard cash!

6. Go big with an entire fried fish. You can’t really call yourself a foodie until you’ve mastered the art of consuming a whole fish, and Tycoon Thai is a tasty place to practice. Order up the famous Garden Fish for the table, an entire tilapia deep fried to crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside perfection, served with a heap of fresh vegetables and a tangle of rice vermicelli noodles bathed in a hot and sour tamarind sauce and traditional Lao sweet and sour sauce straight from the chef’s mother’s kitchen.

8. Chow down on a traditional barbecue feast. Walk down any street in Laos and you’ll have a hard time ignoring the alluring aroma of barbecued meats, served from makeshift food carts parked along the road. There, you can pick up a few tender skewers as a snack and eat them on the go, served in a plastic bag with sticky rice. At Tycoon Thai, the plastic bag gets swapped out for a plate, but the experience is otherwise identical. Nosh on classic Lao specialties like Kor Moo Yang, fall-off-the-bone grilled pork shoulder marinated with coriander root and garlic, or Moo Ping, grilled pork shoulder and served on skewers with spicy tamarind sauce. Or, make it a meal with Tycoon’s combo platter of Som Tum & Gai Yang, an entire juicy leg of barbecued chicken served with spicy-tangy green papaya salad, sticky rice, and a dipping sauce.

9. Wash it all down with a cooling beverage. Sure, you can pair your flavorful feast with a glass of wine (Tycoon Thai has plenty to choose from), but the ultimate companion for a spicy Southeast Asian meal is a nice, cold glass of beer—add ice if you want to do it like they do it in the East! Tycoon Thai offers imported BeerLao direct from the homeland to wash down your meal in true Lao fashion. Or, choose from a wide variety of local craft beers. For those forgoing alcohol, Tycoon also serves up a bevy of sweet, cold and creamy milk teas in a rainbow of colors, from millennial pink milk to bright green jasmine tea.

10. End on a sweet note. Ready to wrap up your meal? Wait, save room for a fried banana with honey! Or how about a crispy roti pancake drizzled with condensed milk and creamy coconut ice cream? Or a juicy slab of fresh mango on a bed of chewy sticky rice sweetened and topped with coconut and sesame seeds? Or how about all three?